The green-bordered text below is is the English version of the explanatory text,
from the page facing the map. Another page on this site gives the
full text in German, English, French, and Bulgarian.

25. – The Ethnological Map by Kiepert (1876).

The fame attached to the name of the renowned German geographer and designer of maps, Heinrich Kiepert (l8l8—l899), dates from the appearance of his distinguished "Atlas von Hellas" (1846); he afterwards puulished thc excellent maps of Asia Minor and Palestine which he had worked out on the spot; these were followed by the wellknown "Bibel-Atlas", of which three editions were issued in the course of eight years. The numerous maps drawn by Kiepert are all distinguished by scientific value and by previously unknown accuracy. For his rare merits as a map-designer he received the "Grand Prix" at the Paris international Exhibition of l867.

Kiepert undertook the exploration of the Ottoman Empire first in Asia Minor and then in Europe. During these scientific explorations he necessarily visited also the countries inhabited by the Bulgarians where he questioned the local inhabitants, and also many such living in Constantinople, about the extent of their race, in the meantime diligently studying the ethnological literature of thc Balkan peninsula. The result of these researches and explorations is the map reproduced here in fac-simile, but somewhat smaller for want of space. Although it indicates more Turkish and Albanian dwelling-places than had in reality existed there, it corrects many mistakes of former ethnologlcal maps. It will be seen at a glance that Kiepert too looks upon all Macedonia (in the west with Albanian, in the south with Greek patches), and the whole district of Nisch as districts chiefly inhabited hy Bulgarians.

This map by Kiepert had the happy lot to gain a certain historical importance: it served to the European Conference, held l876-l877 at Constantinople, as a foundation for drawing the frontiers of both Bulgarian provinces. At the Berlin Congress of l878 the frontiers of the Balkan peninsula were also fixed according to this map. It is also well known, what high value Bismarck has attributed to it.

Keywords: Turkey in Europe – Kiepert

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